Hobbicolors new UW-8 ink reviewed for the ip5000 on kirkland paper

[Inky]

Hi, it's been a while. I've been busy printing lots!

Heres a preliminary review for the Hobbicolors UW-8 ink in the ip5000 printing on Costco Kirkland 8*11 and 4*6 glossy microporus paper. This review is for (4) color CMYK and does not include PM + PC. I should mention that technically the UW8 ink is formulated for the newer generation of Canons not my ip5000, but Dave from Hobbicolors said he uses it in his ip6000 with no problems as have his customers.

The good:
Excellent color balance, just about perfect. True OEM killers using default print settings and no profile required. B/W is very neutral with default printer settings. Gradients are very smooth. Gamut is as good as Canon OEM bci6 series and perhaps better. Cyan is certainly denser than the old Hobbicolors bci6 and magenta seems denser and perhaps more vivid. UW8, unlike the Canon OEM ink, doesnt require an increased intensity setting for prints to pop. Dave of Hobbicolors has been very helpful. Extremely pleasing prints!

The bad:
Ink-flow from the cyan has a reoccurring problem requiring MANY cleaning cycles before producing those perfect prints without serious artifacts. I think the cyan is leaking and pooling on the print head which causes contamination, misfires, serious color shifts, banding, etc. Hope it's just the cart and not the ink viscosity. Dave is sending a replacement cart and cyan ink. I already went through a magenta and cyan refill just trying to figure out the problem and running deep cleaning tests.

I now have about ~20 4*6 perfect color photo prints including grayscales that are the best I've ever printed.
Unfortunatly, I also have ~30 double sided plain-paper pages of gradients (to clear nozzles) and nozzle checks.

When I swapped in the old Hobbicolors BCI-6 cyan cart (which appears to be the same make) the print issues resolved quickly. Putting the UW-8 cyan back in the problem immediately returned. Unfortunately the BCI-6 cyan is too light for the other UW8 inks. Again, hopefully it's just the cart and not the ink viscosity.

Will update this review when the replacements arrive and then again later on fade resistance. Feel free to use this thread to post experiences with the Hobbicolors UW8 ink in (4) color and (6+) color printers.

~cheers

 

[Inky]

**Update**

Hobbicolors is fast! The replacement UW8 cyan will be tested for a few days for clogging/flow problems as this is still a new set for me. So far so good and I highly recommend trying this ink. Will post on fading in couple weeks.

So far the color accuracy is very good including grays with printer defaults zeroed, to my eyes. Photoshop let printer decide and print driver ICM enabled are very nice. Gamut may be wider as advertised. Prints certainly seem more detailed and pop more.

 

[on30trainman]

Inky,
Got around to using the new Hobbicolor UW8 inks today - got my squeeze bottles and needles from Howard Electronics in the mail today, another company with very quick delivery. My first impression is favorable, like yours. Although, I think we use different methods to print. I have been using QImage for a while now. I use a printer profile from within QImage and turn off all color corrections in the print driver. My first attempt with the UW8 inks was using the profile I had made for Kirkland paper and the Hobbicolor BCI-6 inks (made with Profile Prism to get rid of the greenish cast using the BCI-6 inks) - the results were good but the blues (skies) were slightly intense. Then I tried a profile I had previously found for Canon OEM inks and Canon paper - this print was also good, with no greenish cast as it had with the Hobbicolor BCI-6 inks, but the blues (skies) were slightly light. I am going to make a printer profile for my ip6000D in the next day or so specifically using UW8 inks and Kirkland paper.

My results seem to mirror yours - nice colors and no more problems with the greeninsh cast the Hobbicolor BCI-6 inks seemed to have without special profiles. Have not had any clogging or feed problems with any color yet. My first nozzle test had a problem with the Magenta, but one light cleaning cycle fixed that and all the following prints have been good. Hope the new Cyan cartridge clears up your problem. Will keep the forum informed on the results with the new inks and the printer profile.

Steve W.

 

[YellowBrickRoad]

Have you tried the IMS inks (Costco) with the Kirkland Proffessional paper on your canon IP5000. If you have a profile for this combo or any other inks (maybe one of the profiles will be similar enought to the IMS inks) with kirkland photo paper could you please post them.

Also what is your oppinion of Profile Prism? I am considering getting some sort of profiling system.

 

[fotofreek]

YBR - IMS inks from Costco are touted as universal for several manufacturers' printers. While they may work ok in the ip5000 I would definitely steer clear of any ink that claims to be universal. The three inks that participants here have reported positive results with in Canon printers have been MIS, Formulabs, and Hobbicolors. In addition, I have used Computer Friends inks and liked them as well.

 

[YellowBrickRoad]

I've been using IMS inks for about 6 months now and they work good...ie no clogging, no excess ink output or smearing. However, the colors are a little off from the OEM with the kirkland paper. The IMS inks produce excellent color on kodak paper but the kodak paper is crap IMO (resolution not anywhere close to Kirkland Premium or Canon Photo Pro).

If someone profiled IMS with the kirkland paper I'm sure the slight greenish skew would go away. In fact i found a profile for Atlantic ink and Kirkland paper for a canon i9900 that works pretty well on my iP5000 but they are still slightly off.

My assumption is (it may be wrong) that any ink/paper combo properly profiled would look as good as any other specialty ink/ paper combo.

anyway if anyone has a profile for a Canon with Costco IMS and Costco (kirkland) Photo paper I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Grandad35]

YBR,

I have no direct experience with the IMS inks, but (as Fotofreek stated) most feedback on universal ink sets is not as good as it is for the ink sets that are formulated for a specific printer. It has so far proven impossible for the bulk ink suppliers to match the color and flow properties (e.g. viscosity, surface tension, etc.) of even a single OEM ink set - what are the odds that a single ink set could match the needs of every printer?

Perhaps you should try a custom profile (e.g. http://www.cathysprofiles.com/) for $40. Many people get good results from Profile Prism, but the weak link in this chain is that the R/G/B sensors in a scanner don't match the color response of the R/G/B "cones" in our eyes. However, I understand that PP comes with a profile editor that allows you to tweak their finished profiles to better match what your eyes are telling you.

 

[on30trainman]

YBR,
I am one of those who uses Profile Prism - so far my results have been satisfactory. Have not resorted to any manual tweeking of the profiles generated yet- they have seemed to be OK from the automatic phase of the profile generation. From what I read concerning printer profiling the type/quality of the scanner makes a difference. Before I purchased Profile Prism I asked the author (Mike Cheney) what scanners he would recommend. Although he didn't respond with a specific scanner, he recommended the Canon LiDE line. I bought the IiDE-60 which cost me about $80. The scanning SW that comes with the unit is adequate to do the scan of the printer target print. There is a Yahoo group (prismtalk) for PP that is supported by the author. That is where I found a document on setting up and using the Canon-Scan SW to get a suitable scan of the target printout.

Before I bought PP, I tried many different profiles both from the Web and others. When I first tried the Hobbicolor BCI-6 inks I had a slight greenish cast to my prints (ip6000D). Dave of Hobbicolors sent me a profile for the ip9000 or ip9900 to try, but it gave me a totally messed up color - it was for an 8 color printer. Buying a profile is an option, but if you end up using several ink/paper combinations the cost can quickly become higher than just buying PP and a good scanner.

BTW - I have never used the Costco IMS inks. Being labelled Universal scared me away. Canon and Epson inkjet printers use different ways to get ink to paper. An ink formulated for a printer family would be my idea of the best ink to use. So far my ink experience has only been with Canon OEM and Hobbicolors.

Steve W.

 

[LelandHendrix]

I have to agree with the last post. In the inkjet world there are two most common types of printing technology.

Both HP and Canon use thermal inkjet mechanisms to shoot ink from the head, while Epson uses peizo technology in their print head.

Surface tension and especially viscosity requirements differ greatly between the two delivery technologies, and therefore any ink that manages(or claims) to function in both of these fundamentally different environments has obviously been forced to make concessions and meet the two types in the middle.

In that case, any universal ink is incapable of being *ideal* for ANY printer at all.

At least that's what logic demands.

I hope this post might help someone, but I fear you all may already know all about print head tech. I just spent _much_ time studying the matter and thought I might share.

Cheers.

 

[Inky]

After testing the Hobbicolors UW8 ink in my ip5000 for over a month Im highly recommending them. And Im pretty picky.

Pros:

Color is very accurate, extremely close to OEM, and doesnt require profiling. Really. Saturation is good. Tinting can be accomplished with printer color controls if desired, but grays and color are rather accurate with defaults. I print most of the time with ICM checked and all values zeroed. By comparison the older hobbicolors (BCI-6) had a yellow/green tint as have some other 3rd party inks Ive tried.

Fade resistance seems good, better than other 3rd party inks. The claim of UW8 superior fade resistance seems true after a month on my intermittently lit fridge; prints remain dark and vivid. By comparison the older hobbicolors (BCI-6) ink does fade somewhat rapidly as do other inks Ive tried.

Cart design is good with screw in plugs. Refill kit has good syringes.

Price and customer service are good.

Cons:

Had one leaky car out of 10, but thats par for the course with any 3rd party ink. Hobbicolors quickly shipped a replacement cart and some ink free of charge.

May require one cleaning cycle if printer is left to sit for a week. That seems normal enough and acceptable to me.

Color prints on plain paper with low quality settings sometimes band and have issues. My theory is viscosoty isn't perfect enuf for high speed, high flow, plain paper printing. Printing on normal to high plain paper settings seems fine. No problems with photo quality settings.


Overall this is great ink and hassle free. I had to special order the UW8 ink with BCI-6 carts. Hopefully itll be offered as a standard package if more people request it. Again, highly recommended.